Know thy enemy
by Jamie10
Summary: A story about betrayal, craziness and big aliens with guns!!


Short Story  
  
"Dammit, get up to the escape pods now everyone, we are under attack, I repeat we are under attack!" The screeching voice that emerged from every single speaker on the ship said "I want us to........fzzt" The speakers went dead, there was no noise except that of the continuous almost never- ending fire of plasma bursts scoring the ships outer hull.  
  
There was a rush of absolute panic as the Legacy was ripped apart, amidst the confusion a small hologram stood and asked in a gentle and soothing voice "Please remain calm and make your way slowly towards the escape pods". The voice was almost completely drowned out as people fought their way through the crowds towards the higher levels of the ship.  
  
The ship was a relatively small one comprising of only eight decks, four of these decks contained enough pods to safely escort all of the crew to the closest habitable planet, however one of these decks, the lowest one was used primarily for marines to sleep. Of course in each of these rooms there were no speakers because in the event of an accident anyone in the sleeping chambers would be woken up, and would then proceed to walk calmly towards the higher levels of the ship.  
  
The marines were blissfully unaware of the ensuing danger, until one of the chambers was ripped away from the ship into a vast unimaginable emptiness. Immediately the six men awoke, "What the f..." "There's no time follow me" The marines already fully aware of the situation they were in, gathered their weapons and started to head for the higher decks. "Why didn't they wake us?" Enquired the anonymous marine "Be quiet," retorted the second forceful marine "The lifts won't work we'll have to go on foot" "But I might be able to fix them" The second marine suddenly stopped he turned around slowly and pulled out his pistol. "Hey! Look man I'm just trying to help" The second marine smirked and started to slowly edge the trigger backwards. "Come on, okay I won't fix it let's go" The third had beads of sweat developing on his forehead. "I'm so." There was a shot, followed by a slight wheeze of air from the dead marines' lungs. The other four turned away, but they turned back slowly out of morbid curiosity. The third marine, whose nameplate was lightly coated with blood, read Murdock. The body lay as if it wasn't real, as if it was a dummy; it was folded over on itself almost like it had no bones. Now the second marine had asserted his authority he began to traverse towards the stairs. "It won't take us long" said the second marine with an air of power. The marines began to follow their new found leader and soon forgot about Murdock.  
  
The stairs were littered with personal possessions which had been tossed about during the second wave of the onslaught. One such item was a photo, it was of a man and a young boy, the photo lay on the stairs like all of the other items, only there was the man from the photo lying next to it, he was lying there clutching at it, shards of glass from the frame embedded in his hand, he was motionless, but still alive, he wasn't crying or screaming, he had a kind of despair that went beyond tears, a despair that can't really be described unless experienced. The marines ran past with no regard towards the body, they ran like machines, with no feelings.  
  
They had travelled to the sixth deck when they saw the first load. The pod waiting bay was a room full of bodies, bullets lay on the floor, dents of ricocheted bullets in the walls, men clutching knives lying dead, children with glass bottles lay with a desperate look of pain in their eyes, the women lay in corners holding their children, their tears had not yet disappeared. The marines looked around with disgust, but not at the masses of dead, they were looking further, deeper and seeing no pods, so they left in search of more pods.  
  
On the next floor they encountered much of the same. Their sturdy bodies stood and watched and were only shaken by the next wave of plasma bursts, which ruptured the link between the fifth and sixth decks. The marines sprint to the seventh deck to find an escape pod. There are three left. They run in to the closest to find that as they attempt to close the doors the oxygen canisters had been removed. In desperation people had stolen oxygen for themselves it was the same in the next one, canisters ripped from the side, but with an ounce of luck they gear up to flee in the remaining pod. It was only then, when the marines had time, that they felt traumatised, they thought of the number of lives lost, loved ones, from that point on they would have no means of communication with anyone but themselves.  
  
Prao, Corden, Dobree, Plachecki and the unmistakable Fitchit had found themselves in a precarious situation. They'd left the ship later than everyone else so when they land everyone will have left to find other survivors, then of course there is a seemingly unstoppable alien race hunting them down.  
  
These aliens had never communicated with Earth or any other human colonies, they just co-ordinate attacks on all human or earthbound supplies. No-one knows what they're called but most of the humans call them either 'Bastards' or for the less violent humans the 'Andensum'. It was a simple name given to them by a group of squaddies who first encountered them; no- one knows what it means or where it came from. The Andensum are physically quite weak, they wouldn't be able to stand up wearing all their armour if they didn't have so much bio-engineering inside them. They stand about 8ft tall and are almost worm like in their skin tone. The bones they have are frail and need bio-mechanical implants to give reinforced support, but what they lack in muscle, they more than make up for in sheer raw hormonal vigour. They have almost four times the amount of testosterone than in a fully developed adult male. This united with their colossal intellect creates a power which is capable of developing at unparalleled speed.  
  
From what people know about the Andensum they are ranked according to the quantity of small horns around their pelvic quarter, as the number of horns increase so does the superiority of the Andensum. There are many different skills an Andensum can gain but it seems only Andensum with six or more horns are allowed the privilege of having all these skills. The skills that have so far been employed by the Andensum are enhanced vision, strength, hearing, flying and a chameleon like camouflage. It tends to be snipers will make use of vision, concealment and possibly hearing. The foot soldiers will mainly have strength and occasionally the capability to take to the air.  
  
As the marines escape pods jog and jitter through the seemingly endless orange sky the marines just sat and watched the previous pods landing. Behind them they can only see the wreck that was once a proud symbol of earths hope, the Legacy. "Get up!" squawked Fitchit "I won't have weakness in my squad, GET UP!" "Your squad?" retorted Plachecki "You need skill to be a leader in this situation" "I will not tolerate your shit Plachecki" Fitchit bellowed "Get fucked Fitchit" Fitchit started to reach for his gun. "This is the last time I'll tell you" demanded Fitchit "Get back in line" "NO" Fitchit began to raise the gun, his trigger finger itching, as he started to pull the trigger Corden grabbed Fitchits' arm pushing it towards the floor. The gun went off; the bullet lay in Fitchits' big toe. "Corden you're a dead man!" Fitchit screamed in a maddening rage. In the following seconds Corden planted his fist in Fitchits' stomach he took the gun and emptied the magazine. "There has been too much death already" said Corden calmly "It would be unwise to kill anymore before our battle begins" Prao got up and said "He's right we aren't gonna get very far if we keep butchering our own men, we're outnumbered and outgunned as it is, lets not make it worse" Fitchit had no choice but to back down.  
  
Dobree started probing hysterically for the med kit in the interior the escape pod, he was unable to locate it, the force of the escape pod crashing to the ground must have strewn it somewhere. Fitchit demonstrated no signs of pain from the outside; he felt that as leader he ought to show no flaws so his troops would look up to him. Dobree ripped away his bandana to reveal curly blonde hair like that of a young girl; he immediately replaced it with his helmet. He then continued to tie the bandana around Fitchits' foot to stop the bleeding. He had carefully removed the bullet and he then presented it to Fitchit.  
  
"Good news everybody!" announced Prao gleefully "I've managed to fix up the radio" "Good work" Fitchit replied condescendingly "Well, start talking to people" "I've been sending our co-ordinates since we crashed" grimaced Prao "These radios only work over a kilometre distance, after that no-one can hear you" "So you're saying we can't contact anyone and they can't find us until we get closer" Fitchit started furiously. Corden intercepted Fitchits sniping "There's nothing Prao can do about that, the best thing we can do is keep on the move." Plachecki began to collect together his weapons and armour "Right well let's start moving" "I say we head eastwards then" decided Fitchit "Sounds good to me" replied Dobree "It's gotta be westwards, when we were crashing I saw pods landing that way. "Let's use our heads to work out the best direction" Corden interrupted. "When I was listening for answers on the radio I was getting a kind of murmur towards the north" said Prao "Well then it's settled we're northbound" agreed Corden Plachecki was persuaded easily and so was Fitchit rather surprisingly, of course Dobree just followed on without uttering a word.  
  
The marines began their journey into the vast blue tinted mountains. Dobree held Fitchit up so as he could walk, however aggressive Fitchit was Dobree wouldn't let go, in the end Fitchit caved in and let Dobree support him. Prao was focused utterly on the radio in case of the slightest noise.  
  
The journey had been going on for a while and everybody there had become accustomed to the noises of the hills, for a while there was no tension between the marines as they soaked in the cool mountain air.  
  
The radio began to cackle. "He..pzzzt..we'r.attack...densum..slee..ng.aa..rgghh" Plachecki instantly stopped mid hike "Give me those co-ordinates" "Are you insane, it's obvious their being slaughtered, we can't help them" Fitchit remarked. "How do you sleep at night?" Plachecki questioned. "They are our best option" "Stop this!" Corden exclaimed "If we are to stand a hope we must act now" "Let's press on" said Prao. "42.11.437 is what I've got"  
  
There was a deafening silence that fell over the marines as they sprinted across the hillside, down the embankment and onto the hard rocky ground at the foot of the mountain, Fitchit screamed in agony as he lost his balance, putting all his weight onto the now almost severed toe he managed regain his grasp on the hill.  
  
The marines arrived at the scene of the carnage, they were right on time. The battle was still being waged. Already many of the humans had been slain. By Prao's reckoning there was about 15 men left and 4 Andensum. By the time Plachecki got his assault rifle out there were only 7 men left but still 4 Andensum. "Everyone aim for 'Mr Six horn' he's got wings" Fitchit commanded. Immediately the gun fire was targeted towards the winged Andensum. The Andensum dropped his 3 barrelled RF Plasma pistol and took to the sky. Even soaring at 40ft the Andensum was in plain sight due to its huge wingspan. It let out a piercing scream and then began to swoop at some of the surviving humans, as it drew closer two spines emerged from its back, huge hooked spines, it rolled over and latched its spines into one of the men. The man didn't even make a sound the pain was overpowered by his adrenaline, realising he had no hope he made an attempt to grab one of his grenades, he removed the pin. The explosion caused a momentary silence in the fighting, as a gargantuan mass of Andensum fell to the ground and with it lay a true warrior, who fought until the end. But time was short and there was no time to pay respects.  
  
Plachecki began to run towards the Andensum "Cover me" he yelled. He made a dash between the legs of one of the towering Andensum and retrieved the Plasma pistol that had been thrown away by the winged Andensum. He started running backwards towards the other human survivors shooting as he went. He managed to rip away an Andensums' arms with the powerful weapon. "Yee hah!!" Plachecki was overjoyed. The Andensum came crashing to the floor. Fitchit hobbled sheepishly into a rock formation. "Get back here" shouted Corden, but he soon had his attention turned elsewhere.  
  
The Andensum were storming the other survivors, Plachecki was with them but he ran to join with the original group. Dobree and Prao lined up their guns towards the Andensums' heads. They both shot at exactly the same time and in exactly the same place, the result was the Andensum falling to the floor instantaneously in the direction of the other humans. The group started cheering. Plachecki and his group began talking between themselves.  
  
The cheering crowd was soon struck by an almost lighting quick advance of a camouflaged Andensum he ripped the surviving six into pieces in a stealthy attack.  
  
His advances had gone unnoticed by the others; he raised his almost invisible arm above Dobrees' head and ejected a small spine from the top of his hand, as he knelt down to cast his destroying blow Fitchit emerged from his hiding and produced one of the Andensum plasma rifles firing at the beast, it fell to the ground, slowly it became visible again and the full extent of Fitchits' fury was shown. Slowly the Andensums' spines retracted.  
  
The rest of the marines stood there in awe of Fitchit.  
  
"I saw him at the beginning, when he went camo over there; near the tents" said Fitchit "So why didn't you kill him straight away" asked Prao "You fool, you saw how shit our weapons were" cried Fitchit "He's right!" said Corden "I saw a dead Andensum in the rocks, so I searched his body for a weapon" Fitchit said smarmily. "But surely you found the weapon before those other guys got killed" Dobree pondered. "Whilst I looked for the weapon, I lost him." Fitchit swallowed. "And when you saw the others you realised" said Corden "Yes, but I didn't have a clear shot, I didn't want to blow my cover" Fitchit was clawing savagely to any bit of justification he could find. "It's okay, if you hadn't got him when you did he would have got us too" said Dobree "Bu.." Plachecki restrained himself. "What do we do now?" asked Dobree  
  
By this time Prao had wondered off into the nearby tent. He appeared outside of the tent with a small black box. It had curious blue markings along the sides. Prao looked triumphant. "We fly!" said Prao He had procured the Andensums' ship signaller. Prao was an expert in the field of Andensum technology. He knew Haynes (a member of the human outpost they found).He was the sort of inquisitive man who might have some useful trinkets. He used to study the Andensum technology as well. Inside the tent were diagrams and many technical drawings, accompanied by this box. "We can call an Andensum G-class cruiser with this box" announced Prao "All we need is some Andensum DNA" "Well that's pretty abundant!" laughed Plachecki "What are you waiting for?" Fitchit said Prao stalked up towards a chunk of the winged Andensum, and then rubbed the chunk up and down the box.  
  
They waited.  
  
Fitchit started clapping. "Prao strikes again" said Fitchit sarcastically "We can fly out!!" Fitchit started to laugh uncontrollably. "Have faith!" Corden said patiently.  
  
A humming followed by a distinct bluish light indicated the coming of the cruiser.  
  
It was a huge craft. It had to be to sustain five Andensum. The expertise involved in creating such an astounding piece of art must be stupendous. They had seen these crafts before indeed they were fairly common among the Andensum battle fleets, but to see it so close was something altogether completely different.  
  
The ship had no 'edges' to speak of. It was curved and smooth all over. It was a sleek craft, even Fitchit seemed impressed.  
  
There was a sharp hiss of hydraulics as the slender door opened, stopping elegantly. The marines piled in, somehow making the ship less aesthetically pleasing.  
  
"How do you move it sunshine?" Fitchit asked crabbily. "Just gimme a moment" Prao replied "I gotta give it a code, a specific code for this ship" "Try this" Corden pointed at the strange symbols on the screen. Prao not knowing what else to do tried it, and to his surprise the ships AI began to start the engines of the ship. "How did you know that?" enquired Prao "It's the name of this ship, I saw it outside" Corden said "Plachecki can you fly an Andromeda?" Prao said "Kinda, Murdock was teaching me, I know the basics" said Plachecki "Can we get going?" Fitchit asked impatiently. Plachecki stepped up to the ships control panel, he let his hands glide along the throttle controls, he took a while to get used to the arrangement of the controls but within a few moments he was gently lifting the ship from the ground..  
  
"Okay, so we have a ship what are our plans now?" Dobree thought aloud. "We could look for other survivors!" said Prao "We could take down a few Andensum cruisers!" said Plachecki "Can we pilot this ship without being inside it Prao?" asked Corden "What?" Prao replied "We could pack this ship full of explosives and then send it into one of the Andensums' large battle cruisers" said Corden "That wouldn't work!" said Fitchit "An unmanned craft flying into their ships docking bay" "The Andensum would be suspicious" said Dobree "He's right" said Plachecki "We couldn't turn the tide of the war!"  
  
The marines were drifting though this planets atmosphere, without an aim or purpose. They had in their hands a powerful weapon, which they were entirely oblivious of.  
  
Prao was attempting to teach Corden and Plachecki more about the Andensum technology and civilisation. He was saying that Female Andensum have the ability to bear 250 babies at time. He said the babies are the size of a light bulb when born, and that the females are 15ft tall. They kill the male after being impregnated so all 250 of her babies can survive. He said for every set of babies 200 are male. As he was explaining why the babies' gender is predetermined a message started decoding on the viewing screen. Prao translated it as  
  
Transmission start- // Tendark, return the Andensum traitor immediately. // We need more bio-implants bring the ???? Containers. // Transmission End-  
  
"Traitor?" said Dobree puzzled "What containers?" Plachecki said. "There is a cargo bay" said Prao "I just didn't think to go in" "A traitor!" said Corden "perhaps we could use him to help us" "Bio implants, containers full of them" said Fitchit  
  
All the marines, except Plachecki who was piloting, they went down to the other end of the ship into the Cargo bay. In it they found silver metallic crates, presumably with the Bio implants in.  
  
"Guys come over here!" Prao called out to the rest of the group  
  
He had found the traitor he was bound to the floor by chains, he had no armour, and by the look of it he had been stripped of all his implants. The most noticeable thing about the Andensum was the lack of horns; he had 8 holes, dripping with blood. The horns must have been embedded deeply inside the Andensum by the size of the holes.  
  
The Andensum struggled, cursing in his native tongue. Prao ran back to the bridge and took the plasma pistol that Plachecki was still carrying. Prao shot the chains off the Andensum. It was too weak to pull itself up onto its feet; Corden lent down and heaved the fragile creature up, he escorted the Andensum back to the bridge and then slowly lowered it onto a chair, its body flopped limp into it. "Damn useful traitor" said Fitchit "Pile of crap can barely walk let alone fight"  
  
It was getting late, the marines had been awake for a long time now, and they'd travelled a long way as well. In the interest of the mission the marines retired to the Andensum sleeping quarters.  
  
The quarters were huge as you would imagine. The beds however were suspended vertical cocoon like things. Considering they were built for huge 8ft Andensum they smothered the marines. Plachecki stayed awake and continued piloting the ship through space, still with no particular aim.  
  
Plachecki left the controls after two hours and thought that the others had had enough sleep.  
  
He crept in slowly to Praos' room and started swinging the hanging bed. Prao started laughing. "Come on man, stop it!" he chortled Plachecki let him down, he instructed Prao to wake everyone else up while he piloted the ship.  
  
Prao was still sleepy and stumbled to his destination. He arrived outside Cordens' dwelling. The doors slid open. As the doors opened Prao saw blood at the bottom of the unmoving bed. As he edged ever closer he saw a hole going straight through the bed about two thirds of the way up. He peered inside the cocoon to see Corden slumped at the bottom of the bed with a single hole in his forehead. Prao deduced he shot was from a human weapon because the hole didn't have any sort of plasma scoring. He alerted the rest of the crew. "It must have been that friggin' alien!" roared Fitchit "Let's kill the fucker!" Fitchit whipped everyone into a vicious frenzy, the marines charged into the Andensums' quarters. "Get out of your bed asshole" Fitchit said almost frothing at the mouth. The Andensum arose at a leisurely pace from his bed. It spoke. "I did harm not friend" it said in its crude form of English. "Well who else is gonna do it Motherfucker!" cried Dobree Prao interrupted "This creature can't support itself, let alone hold a gun and fire it" "The one you call Fitchit harms" the Andensum said "Heltar track Fitchit" "Sorry but somehow we can't trust you over Fitchit" said Dobree "Heltar verify foe by means of record" the Andensum said almost incoherently.  
  
During the following moments the feeble Andensum showed a recording of Fitchit. He started in his room with his pistol. He took a single bullet from his pocket, left his room into Cordens', then shot him in the head; he sat in the room for almost ten minutes laughing. The marines realised instantly and before Fitchit could protect himself they swarmed him and restrained him. "He defied me, but he didn't get away with it" laughed Fitchit "He shot me in the foot so I killed him with the very same bullet" "You insane fuck!" said Prao  
  
The marines took Fitchit to the Andensum weapons quarter. They loaded him into to the missile hatchet. Fitchit was still laughing. The marines figured they'd leave him there. But Plachecki in an enraged state ran back to the bridge and fired the shoot that held Fitchit. Fitchits' body sped out of the hole and flew at an overwhelming velocity.  
  
"We must continue!" said Heltar "I insert implant to you" "Come again?" said Prao "They aren't compatible with our bodies" "Heltar modify" said Heltar.  
  
Plachecki started a course to the battleship which had sent the transmission. Whilst the ship travelled Heltar began alter the implants. He was unable to modify the flight implant as it required artificial wings also. Heltar began to insert the enhancements into the surviving three members of the team. Prao was first. He had to be sedated due to the deep incisions needed to successfully install an implant. Heltar seemed to have an advanced understanding of the human structure. After the complex procedure had been completed Prao needed to learn how to use his new implants.  
  
"I feel the same" said Prao "I don't think it's gone right" "Use eye focus long away" said Heltar  
  
Prao looked around realising he was in a small room; he went out into the corridor and could only just see Plachecki piloting the ship. When he tried to focus on Plachecki his eyes felt as if they were pulling his body over to Plachecki, due to the speed at which they were able to zoom in.  
  
Prao slowly realised all he had to do to control the implants was concentrate. He tried to hear behind him. He focused himself, closed his eyes, "AAAAAAAAAARRRGGHH" Prao could hear everything thrice as loud as normal, footsteps sounding like crashing pans as they clattered against the hard metallic floor. "You must look at what hear then noises go away" said Heltar Prao understood that meant he had to concentrate on a target to hear something rather than listen to everything. He asked Plachecki to whisper things and see if he could hear him. "You son of a bitch" Plachecki whispered gently. "Son of a bitch yourself, Plachecki" shouted Prao "Man this stuffs amazing" Prao only had strength and camouflage to test out. To test his new strength Prao attempted to lift Dobree, he did so with ease so he carried Dobree down to the cargo bay and lifted up several of the bio implant containers which were easily twice Dobrees' weight. "You are stronger than Heltars' race" said the Andensum "Implants make you a lot stronger" "How am I supposed to go invisible then?" said Prao The Andensum struggled in his translation but the essence was that Prao had to stay completely still and after he changed he could continue to be invisible until he stopped moving again. Prao sat there, he started to fade, he glimmered in the dark, and then there was nothing. Prao was running circles around Dobree. He lifted Dobrees' helmet and began floating it around in a futile attempt at being a ghost.  
  
Dobree was next to be implanted. Heltar taught Prao how to do the operation to both humans and Andensum. Prao then implanted Heltar, who was able to make full use of the flight implant as Andensum tend to keep their wings even when retired from battle as occasionally the removal can result in scars which never heal. Heltar stood with a new strength no longer feeble, he stood at his full height and seemed prouder.  
  
Heltar took the controls of the ship while Plachecki was implanted.  
  
Plachecki coped well with his new implants although when piloting the ship he occasionally pushed the throttle too far up, because of his inability to control this immense strength.  
  
The marines felt immortal with their new gifts. They now planned to engage an Andensum battle ship, (the one which called them). The plan was to all be completely invisible sneak into the interior of the ship and with Heltars help they would rewire the data matrix so that all systems would be rerouted to the engines forcing the ship to travel at immense speed through space with no lights, no navigation and even no life support. But the cherry on top of the ice cream in this plan is that the ship will head straight for the Andensum home world, Anden. Heltar had already volunteered to be the one who flipped the final switch, so that the marines would have a chance to escape.  
  
The Battle ship wouldn't destroy Anden. It would only destroy one half of the planet; fortunately the side that will impact is the only half which is habitable. One half of Anden is a thriving metropolis where life flourishes, however the other is an icy baron land where no life can survive.  
  
The marines are now within sight of the Battle ship. "Holy shit!" said Plachecki "That thing is enormous" "Your right Plachecki" said Prao "It's about eight hundred kilometres long" Dobree was psyching himself up.  
  
The ships docking bay was huge it must have spanned a least two kilometres. They searched frantically for an empty airlock. "This is just like a busy car park" Plachecki said The humour didn't translate to Heltar.  
  
They found themselves a space eventually. The red light in the cockpit flashed above Placheckis' head. It was just the warning to the pilot that the airlock doors were open and that the ship could be left.  
  
As protocol demanded two armed Andensum marched towards the door to inspect the ship. However normal protocol also stated that all passengers aboard the ship should stand by the door and wait through the inspection. But due to a lack of knowledge on Prao's part the Marines senselessly beat the two Andensum. They stole the weapons and gave the Armour to Heltar. The motley group of covert saboteurs transformed into their camouflaged state. Sneaking past every Andensum they met. Until Dobree slipped. He fell into an Andensum. It quickly realised there was an invisible stranger around, he bent over and was able to clutch Dobree. Plachecki quickly responded and shot the beast dead. Unfortunately every Andensum in that corridor had realised what was going on.  
  
There was a brief fight, an easy win for the marines. The Andensum were unarmed and in plain sight, the marines had the advantage in every respect.  
  
The marines were now four kilometres from the ships interior, they knew it would take them forever on foot. Heltar told them of a vehicle they could use to travel there in a matter of minutes. He called it a Denkad, essentially it was a powerful hover craft with a flat top, it had enough room for six but an unmanned Denkad would be highly suspicious so they waited for people to board one.  
  
They killed each of them with a shot to the back of the head and held them up like puppets; it gave the appearance of four live people talking on a Denkad. A successful piece of espionage.  
  
They reached the core; it took thirty minutes by Denkad. The room was full of people some unarmed, unshielded, and completely unaware. But there were a lot of guards. Each had eight horns.  
  
The marines weren't stupid, they knew that the Andensum would see them messing with the Matrix. So they started a surprise attack.  
  
Heltar went down to the control area and began the alterations. Dobree made sure nobody left the room and called for anymore support. Plachecki and Prao started the assault on the armed Andensum. "Hurry Heltar!" squealed Dobree "Prao watch out!" Plachecki cried as an Andensum lurched behind Praos' back. The confrontation had begun quickly and the accuracy shown by the Andensum gunmen was outmatched by that of Prao and Plachecki. Although the sheer mass of plasma shots from the Andensum caused a small problem for the marines. Heltar suddenly de-cloaked. "What are you doing Heltar?" shouted Dobree. Heltar had been still too long and become visible. He didn't have a hope of re-cloaking in the midst of a battle. He took to the air, so did two of the other armed Andensum. Heltar swooped down towards the ground above Prao. As the other airborne Andensum followed Prao jumped, he managed to catch on to one of them.  
  
He realised his mistake as soon as the Andensums' spines came out into his knees. "FUUUUCCCKKKK!" he roared. He started to shoot holes in the Andensums' wings forcing it to land. Just as it neared the floor Prao snapped its neck and ripped it clean off. But whilst that was happening Heltar was still trying to outmanoeuvre the Andensum on his tail. Plachecki finished it with seven shots through its stomach. The field was slowly being littered with Andensum bodies. Dobree ran from his post at the door and used his assault rifle on the unshielded Andensum.  
  
The last enemies standing were three heavily armed Andensum; they all folded their wings around them. Plachecki ran towards them and yelled only to be flung to the other side of the room by the wing of the Andensum. They were making use of their bio-implants in an extraordinary way. Prao let a round of plasma bursts off, only to be disappointed when none of them made contact. The marines were stunned the guards were so highly trained and they didn't seem to be able to do anything. The encapsulated Andensum began shooting spines from their body in the direction of the marines. Prao got a spine in his neck, but Heltar ripped it loose and threw back at the enveloped Andensum. "I work you must leave now!" said Heltar The marines unsure of what to do began to flee; however Prao suddenly understanding what the Andensum were doing threw a fragmentation grenade. As he expected the Andensum dodged it and returned to his position, the grenade exploded and the unknowing Andensum had been thwarted.  
  
The marines left Heltar to it; they got back on the Denkad and returned to visibility, the Denkad sped along to the destination, all the time the marines were under fire. They were not deterred; they started the final mad dash to the Tendark. It had been left unguarded, they got into the ship and Plachecki fired up the engines. As they left the docking area they shot down a few of the docked crafts, just to make sure it was harder for people to escape.  
  
As they looked back they saw the ship go dark. The lights were replaced with a loud humming, Heltar had done it. The ships engines were powering up. It disappeared from sight almost instantly, the acceleration was so powerful.  
  
"It's a long way home!" said Prao 


End file.
